Mecklenburg County Commissioners will meet Wednesday to hear how the health department plans to start making changes. A report suggests it could cost up to $4.6 million and take up to three years to complete.
There are four projects the health department is proposing. They all would improve areas of weakness consultants found when they reviewed the department. The outside groups were hired after it became public that 185 women were delayed months in learning about their abnormal Pap smear results.
The department is looking at increasing the top level management team to include two more assistant health directors. One dedicated to overseeing clinics.
The department wants to improve the way employees use the electronic medical records. One consultant said now they are more of an electronic filing cabinet than reliable record.
The department is looking at whether to outsource some lab tests.
Internal auditors went further back and reviewed whether patients who came into the clinics for Pap smears were followed up with correctly. They found between 3 - 13 percent of patients with abnormal results may not have gotten an initial notification letter but may have gotten one later.